Bravo is Charmed to Air Fairy-Tales With Bizarre Twists - Los Angeles Times
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Bravo is Charmed to Air Fairy-Tales With Bizarre Twists

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Pssst! Do you want to hear some really revolting news?

Cinderella’s Prince Charming was actually a spoiled brat who loved to chop off people’s heads.

Little Red Riding Hood was anything but politically correct. It seems she really didn’t perish at the hands of the Big Bad Wolf. She actually skinned him and wore him as a coat!

These twists on beloved fairy-tales come from the vivid imagination of the late children’s author Roald Dahl (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factoryâ€) and are brought to life in the new animated special Revolting Rhymes, premiering Sunday on Bravo.

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Timothy West and Prunella Scales of “Fawlty Towers†fame supply the voices for these “Revolting†stories, which also include the “real-life†fates of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,†“The Three Little Pigs†and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.â€

Next Sunday, Bravo presents another collection of Dahl stories, “Dirty Beasts.â€

“Revolting Rhymes†airs Sunday 2-2:30 p.m. Bravo. For ages 4-12.

MORE KIDS’ SHOWS

Richard Chamberlain’s Prince Charming, on the other hand, is as sweet as he can be in The Slipper and the Rose (Sunday 2:15-4:30 p.m. Disney Channel), an enchanting 1976 musical version of the “Cinderella†legend, starring British actress-singer Gemma Craven as Cindy. For all ages.

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The very British Hayley Mills plays All-American teen-ager Nancy Carey in Summer Magic (Sunday 6-8 p.m. Disney Channel), a 1963 Disney musical-comedy in which she saves her family from economic disaster. Burl Ives, Dorothy McGuire, Deborah Walley and Peter Brown also star. Oscar-winning songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman (“Mary Poppinsâ€) penned the score, which includes the charming “Walk Feminine.†For ages 6 and up.

Don’t know what to do on Memorial Day? Well, Nickelodeon may have the answer--eight full hours of its popular series Hey Dude (Monday noon-8 p.m.). Nick will present 16 specially selected episodes of the adventure-comedy set at the Bar None Dude Ranch, which offer “classic moments†from the series. For ages 7-15.

A 1988 CBS Schoolbreak Special: No Means No (Tuesday 3-4 p.m. CBS) dramatizes the traumatic impact of teen date rape and examines the assumption in today’s teen culture that sex is acceptable social behavior. Chad Lowe (“Life Goes Onâ€), Lori Loughlin (“Full Houseâ€) and James Marshall (“Twin Peaks,†“Gladiatorâ€) For ages 12-17.

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Just in time for baseball season is a repeat of “Casey at the Bat†on Shelley Duvall’s Tall Tales and Legends (Tuesday 7:05-8:05 p.m. Disney Channel), starring Elliott Gould as the legendary baseball hero of the Mudville Hogs who turned baseball into a national sport. Howard Cosell narrates. For ages 7 and up.

John Candy is the voice of Blumpoe, a grumpy guy who finds himself stranded during a snowstorm at a cozy inn inhabited by 19 cats in “Blumpoe the Grumpoe Meets Arnolds the Cat†on this week’s Shelley Duvall’s Bedtime Stories (Tuesday 7:30-8 p.m. Showtime). In “Millions of Cats,†James Earl Jones relates the tale of a very old man who goes off in search of a cat to keep him and his wife company and ends up bringing home billions and trillions of felines. For ages 2-10.

Shirley Temple plays a young waif in Victorian England who searches the hospitals looking for her father, supposedly killed in the Boer War in 1939’s The Little Princess (Friday 7-9 p.m. the Family Channel), based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s famed children’s novel. Richard Greene, who later became TV’s “Robin Hood,†Ian Hunter, Anita Louise and Arthur Treacher also star in this Technicolor delight. For ages 5-14

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